SOCIOLOGY- II

PROJECT

(WINTER SEMESTER )
Occupy Wall Street Movement

SUBMITTED BY

SAINA S. MOHAPATRA

ID: 216040 (BATCH OF 2021)

YEAR: FIRST

WORD COUNT : 2312 [ Excluding footnotes and references ]

 OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT

INTRODUCTION

The occupy Wall Street movement, the first leg of the occupy movements which gradually
spread across different parts of America and Europe is a typical modern social movement
largely taking help from internet platforms to attract mass support. It was a protest movement
1
against economic inequality, free market capitalism and corporate influence on democracy.
The question then arises, why wall-street? The roots of the protest lies in the 2008 economic
meltdown and wall street being the most visible institutional cause for this was the target of
the protest.2 This protest started out as something which had no specific demands or
leadership and despite such a lacunae , it managed to cross boundaries. The evolution and
cause of such a spontaneous movement can be traced by the multiple personal accounts given
3
by people and the academic analysis of it . The project seeks to address the historical
context of the movement along with the innovative methods used by the protesters towards
the cause and then conclude by critically appraising the impact of the movement on the socio-
economic fabric of the country.

RATIONALE

The wall street movement is of contemporary importance because of its unique nature as an
internet based as well as an offline urban social movement which initially media never took
seriously , but was compelled to take notice of the rapidity with which the movement took
off. The researcher , belonging to the era where use of internet platforms and social media is
at its prime, it is intriguing to find out about a successful movement which mostly took help
of the internet to gain support from many countries. Another aspect of this movement is the
importance attached to physically occupying a space which is essentially their target.

1
Jaydev Arjun , 2011, Reading Signs at the Occupy Movement , Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 46 (49)
: 28-31

2
McGhee, Heather, 2011, Why Occupy Wall Street? 10 Reasons why Protestors picked the right target The
Huffington Post , Retrieved 12 March 2017, at ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-mcghee/why-occupy-
wall-street-10_b_1014721.html )

3
Earle, Ethan 2012, A Brief History Of Occupy Wall Street , Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Publications,
Retrieved 12 March 2017 ,( http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/wp-content/files_mf/earle_history_occupy.pdf)
 OBJECTIVES

Following are the objectives of the research essay

1. The historical context and the various political and economic causes associated with
the occupy wall street movement
2. The aims and objectives of this movement
3. Methods of protest
4. Critical appraisal of the movement.

METHODS

The researcher uses secondary sources like scholarly Journal articles and Newspaper Reports
and Web Resources to write the paper.

DISCUSSION

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The movement sought to address economic issues particular to the country of US which
included demands for a more equitable distribution of wealth , a reduction in the influence of
corporations and other financial institutions on the government , demand for better jobs , an
end to foreclosures , bank reforms and various types of debt forgiveness which in turn might
lead to a halt to the rising economic disparity between people of the country. 4 They were of
the view that it wasnt their function to offer proposals, instead they wanted to avoid being
involved with the political system and wanted to remain free to use direct action to call
attention to these issues..5

4
Id

5
Hammond, John. L .2013 The Significance of Space in Occupy Wall Street Journal For And About Social
Movements Vol 5 (2): 499 524
 THE BEGINNINGS

On September 17, 2011 a few hundreds of protestors came to lower Manhattan and
proceeded to occupy the Wall Street which they couldnt because of heavy security as the
news of an upcoming protest had been known to all thanks to the social media uproar prior to
the occupation. Therefore the protestors decided to set up their camps at Zuccotti Park which
is nearby Wall street to mark the beginning of their protest. 6The occupy movement is
inspired by the waves of protest that was recently happening in the world , like for example
Irans abortive Green Movement against the electoral fraud in 2009, the Arab Spring which
started in Tunisia to Egypt , Libya , Syria and Bahrain etc. , the protests in Spain and Greek
austerity protests. 7

CAUSE OF THE MOVEMENT -CORPORATE GREED

The pent up frustration was over the nations financial system because of the growing
influence of capitalist corporations on US politics . The target of the entire movement was
Wall-Street and not the government to be precise because of various reasons. To understand
the evolution of the movement, it is important to understand the economic and social
backdrop of US which fuelled such an outrage. The Wall Street symbolised the heart of the
nations financial system and was under the control of capitalist corporations , particularly the
financial corporations. It was against all forms of corporate power and corporate greed which
was a major force in the concentration of wealth and income in the hands of a tiny fraction of
the population , the 1 % in the parlance of the wall street protestors.8 Besides, corporate
profits rose while family incomes remained static contributing to the gap between such big
corporates and an average individual . Also the average remuneration of a corporate CEO in
2011 was 231 times that of the average worker.9 Nobel prizewinning economist Joseph
Stiglitz referred to this as an increasingly dysfunctional form of capitalism as these

6
Id

7
Id

8
Id
9
Mishel, Lawrence, and Natalie Sabadish. 2012. CEO pay and the top 1%: How
executive compensation and financial-sector pay have fueled income inequalityWashington: Economic Policy
Institute. Retrieved 12 March 2017 ( http://www.epi.org/publication/ib331-ceopay-top-1-percent).
practices have not only contributed to economic inequality but were also responsible for the
financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent recession . 10On one hand , most of the capitalists
recovered quickly because of the bailout secured by them due to the political influence ,
millions of workers on the other hand remained jobless and also lost their homes to mortgage
11
foreclosures. Thus these corporations have won government policies that favour them
which includes taxation and deregulation of financial institution. One of the most important
demand made by the movement was a regulating tax for the wall Street ie the Robin Hood
tax. 12

CLASHES WITH THE AUTHORITIES AND THE LAW

The central idea of the movement was to physically occupy wall street and other related
locations as to occupy these spaces was to transform them.13 As this continued , lawyers and
legal workers working with the occupy movement began to consider whether the first
amendment might include a right to occupy . 14

However, earlier decisions of the Supreme Court had held that the first amendment will not
protect to round the clock occupations which includes activities such as sleeping and camping
. There were disturbing evidence that the occupy protestors are being infiltrated and spied
upon by the counter terrorism unit of the New York Police Department. 15

Thus occupations faced a severe backlashes from police and elected officials and sometimes
it also resulted in violence which includes destruction of the original encampment in Zucotti
Park in Lower Manhattan. The protestors tried to recapture the space , however a court order

10
Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2012. The Price of Inequality. New York: Norton

11
Stiglitz, Joseph. 2010. Free Fall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. New York:
W.W.Norton,

12
Reilly, Peter J , 2013, Sept 17 , Occupy Wall Street Anniversary Focuses On Robin Hood Tax , The
Forbes Retrieved 12 Marh 2017 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/09/17/occupy-wall-street-
anniversary-focuses-on-robin-hood-tax/#69b5d4ad2c6d )

Kunstler, Sarah . 2012. The Right To Occupy Occupy Wall Street And The First Amendment , Fordham
13

URB LJ. Vol 39 , 989

14
Id
15
Supra, Note 3
declared that they had to vacate it.16 At this point the official statement by the occupiers was
given under the motto You cant evict an idea whose time has come 17

THE POWER OF INTERNET

The call for the wall street movement was given by Adbusters, a Canadian non-profit
magazine on the internet platform asking the people to be ready for a Tahrir movement in
America and asked them to flood into the lower Manhattan to set up tents , kitchen, peaceful
18
barricades in order to occupy Wall Street on September 17 . Internet as a means of
spreading the movement has become an integral part of modern social movements. Such
network instruments are not the sole creator of movements but they are tools of convenience
so as to connect the protestors and relay a message to the outside world 19. For eg , Twitter in
such cases helps in announcing an event as well as for polling the views of a large assembly
on a specific decision in real time.20 Information about the protests is organized on Twitter
using hash tags as they are used to coordinate the planning for certain events or to tie ones
21
tweets in with a larger discussion on a subject. The internet is an extremely flexible form
of public space where even if the major movements are about a specific issue in a specific
region, yet people everywhere are connected to the happenings of the movement . 22

16
CNN Wire Staff ,2011 New York court upholds eviction of Occupy
protesters. CNN U.S. Retrieved 12 March 2017 http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-15/us/us_new-yorkoccupy-
eviction_1_protesters-demonstrators-tents?_s=PM:US

17
Skinner, Julia 2011. Social Media and Revolution : The Arab Spring and Occupy Movement as Seen
Through Three Information Studies Paradigms, All Sprouts Content, 483

18
Caren Neal,and Sarah Gaby , 2011. Occupy Online : Facebook and The Spread of Occupy Wall Street
Retrieved 12 March 2017 ( http://ssrn.com/abstract=1943168)

19
Zogby, J. 2011, October 22.Whether in Egypt or America, it takes organization to win. Huff
Post World. Retrieved 12 March (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/arab
springelections_b_1026281.html )

20
Hardt ,Michael and Antonio Negri 2011. The Fight For Real Democracy at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street
Council Of Foreign Relations , Retrieved 12 March 2017
(http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136399/michael-hardt-and-antonionegri/the-fight-for-real-democracy-
at-the-heart-of-occupy-wall-street )
21
Supra, Note 17

22
Castells, Manuel and Mukul Kumar , 2014. A Conversation with Manuel Castells Berkeley Planning
Journal , 27(1) , 93-99
The quintessential slogan of the movement is We are the 99% signifying the suffering of
the majority of people due to the concentration of wealth by a the wealthiest 1% . A blog,
"We are the 99%," was created on www.tumblr.org even before the occupation, inviting
people to post a photograph of themselves holding a handwritten poster telling a tale of
economic woe. This blog spread the word and the ideas of the coming occupation. It
23
now has thousands of messages; new ones are still being added. The occupy movement
caught the attention of the internet when an OWS demonstration on September 24 was
captured in a YouTube video showing four female protestors entrapped by police men in
orange mesh and a white collar officer sprayed them with a mesh, hitting two squarely in the
face . This video soon became viral in other media outlets as well as this brazen act signified
a shift in the relationship between the protestors, police and the state.24. Even though the
occupy movement was primarily an offline movement , it has also been active in social
media platforms like Facebook, twitter Youtube , Meetup and livestream etc. Facebook
emerged as the most prominent website more then Twitter 25
Tweets are fleeting and the
Twitter interface is designed to highlight current news rather than static information .26

DEMOCRACY WITHIN THE MOVEMENT

The most unique method used by the movement was giving emphasis to democratic process
of decision making in the encampments involving interaction and voting. The New York
General Assembly describes itself as the following:...an open, participatory and horizontally
organized process through which we are building the capacity to constitute
ourselves in public as autonomous collective forces within and against the constant crises
of our times.27 These assemblies used consensus-based decision making models and adopted
such methods so as to reduce centralized and concentrated control. Everyone was given an
opportunity to present their opinion on any issue as these camps didnt have a specific leader.

23
Supra , Note 5

24
Supra , Note 3

25
Supra , Note 18
26
Id

27
#OccupyWallStreet NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY , Retrieved 12 March 2017
(http://www.nycga.net/about/ )
Nearly everything that was done in the OWS , from neighbourhood outreach to actions
28
against banks was passed through these assemblies and extensively debated and revised.
The volunteers would take meeting minutes for these not in attendance and would make the
29
developments accessible to general public. Thus the movement turned anger into
constructive civic purposes 30
. Another feature is the peoples microphone-an innovation
which came after the ban to allow electronic voice amplification. In this process, the words of
individual speakers which were otherwise not audible were repeated by the members and
made audible to all.31 The protestors were inspired by the tactics followed by the Quaker
meetings , Latin American Popular assemblies , Spanish acampadas and other traditional
protest and political organization. Participants borrowed tactics from Quaker meetings, Latin
American popular assemblies, Spanish acampadas, andother traditions of protest and political
organization32 This was an effective process to give voice to the minority section as well and
make them equally participative.

SIGNIFICANCE OF SPACE IN THE OCCUPY MOVEMENTS

All social movements are organized in some space, but some movements are about space :
which possesses particular spaces, who is entitled to be present in, control and perform kinds
of activities in the space33. According to David Graeber, an early organizer of OWS, "the
great advantage of Zuccotti Park was that it was a place where anyone interested in what we
were doing knew they could always come to find us, to learn about upcoming actions or just

28
Supra , Note 3

29
Id

30
Barber, Benjamin ,2012 . What Democracy Looks Like Contexts: From Sweat shops to Surrogacy , Sage
Publications , 11(2) 14-16

31
Id

32
Massey, Jonathan and Brett Snyder 2012, September , Occupying Wall Street : Places And Spaces Of
Political Action Retrieved 12 March 2017 (https://placesjournal.org/article/occupying-wall-street-places-and-
spaces-of-political-action/?gclid=CKyFob67v9ICFcwTaAodgwgAQQ )
33
Tilly, Charles. 2000. Spaces of Contention. Mobilization 5, No. 2 : 135-159. , Retrieved 14 March 2017
(http://mobilizationjournal.org/doi/abs/10.17813/maiq.5.2.j6321h02n200h764?code=hjdm-site)
talk politics" 34.Thus wall street in this case turned out to have a symbolic geography which
includes "use of emblematic monuments, locales, or buildings in dramatization of demands,
and a struggle for control of crucial public spaces in validation of claims to political power"
35

CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE MOVEMENT

Much of the success of Occupy wall street is given to its extent to which it opened spaces for
public interactions. Also the OWS gave space to diverse and divided sectors - starting from
unions to immigrant groups to radical youth , anarchists and socialists to come together
despite their differences. 36
We are the 99%" entered common discourse as a way of
denouncing inequality and it was chosen as "quotation of the year" by Fred Shapiro, the Yale
law librarian, who compiles a list of the ten best quotes of each year. 37 It opened possibilities
of political action through internet , blogs and social media38 This formulation has been its
most important contribution as it made the people realise how the wealthier lot has been
reaping the benefits of the economy in the past few decades and nothing has been done about
it. 39
the idea of the 99% managed to do something that no one has ever done in the US
40
since the Great Depression. On the flip side, some argue that this movement should have
taken the form of a more traditional social movement , like having clear and specific goals

34
Graeber, David. 2013. The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement. New
York: Spiegel and Grau

35
Supra , Note 33

36
Davis , Mike 2011 October 21 No More Bubblegum , Los Angeles Review of Books Retrieved 11 March
2017 (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/no-more-bubblegum/)

37
Christofferson, John. 2011 December 20 . 'We Are The 99 Percent' Chosen As Year's Top Quote.
HuffingtonPost . Retrieved 13 March 2017 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/weare-the-99-percent-
chosen-quote_n_1160171.html>

38
Supra , Note 3
39
Id

40
Graeber, David 2012 September 24 Can Debt Spark a Revolution? The Nation , Retrieved 14 March 2017
(https://www.thenation.com/article/can-debt-spark-revolution/ )
 41
and having a leader. On a negative note, several conflicts have emerged during the
42
movement relating to the composition of the 99% they are claiming to be. Also the
movement was too preoccupied with occupation as a result of which when the occupation
43
was hampered by legal authorities, the movement seemed to temporarily stop. Internal
corruption and funding problems also emerged in the meanwhile and the substitution of
general assembly with the spokes council also led to bureaucratization of the system. 44.

CONCLUSION
The nature of social movements are evolving with the passage of time and upcoming
technological innovation. Not every movement needs to follow the conventional pattern as all
it needs is accountability by following a more representative and democratic methods so as to
include everyone who stand for the cause. The Occupy Movement was one such movement
where the essence of democracy captured. Along with that, it worked successfully on two
different public spaces, one is the physical public space and the other is the world wide web
marking the arrival of a new kind of social movement using social media.

41
Walzer, Michael , 2012 Social Movements and Election Campaigns , DISSENT ,Summer 2012 Edition
Retrieved 13 March 2017 ( https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/social-movements-and-election-campaigns
)

42
Berman, Jillian 2013, January 30 , Occupy Wall Street Actually Not At All Representative Of The 99
Percent, Report Finds The Huffington Post , Retrieved 12 March 2017
(http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/occupy-wall-street-report_n_2574788 )
43
Supra, Note 5
44
Supra , Note 3
 REFERENCES

Online Journals and Websites

#OccupyWallStreet NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY , Retrieved 12 March 2017

(http://www.nycga.net/about/ ) ........................................................................................................... 7
Caren Neal,and Sarah Gaby , 2011. Occupy Online : Facebook and The Spread of Occupy Wall
Street Retrieved 12 March 2017 ( http://ssrn.com/abstract=1943168) ........................................... 5
Davis , Mike 2011 October 21 No More Bubblegum , Los Angeles Review of Books Retrieved 11
March 2017 (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/no-more-bubblegum/) .......................................... 8
Earle, Ethan 2012, A Brief History Of Occupy Wall Street , Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Publications, Retrieved 12 March 2017 ,( http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/wp-
content/files_mf/earle_history_occupy.pdf) ....................................................................................... 1
Hardt ,Michael and Antonio Negri 2011. The Fight For Real Democracy at the Heart of Occupy
Wall Street Council Of Foreign Relations , Retrieved 12 March 2017
(http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136399/michael-hardt-and-antonionegri/the-fight-for-real-
democracy-at-the-heart-of-occupy-wall-street ) ................................................................................. 5
Massey, Jonathan and Brett Snyder 2012, September , Occupying Wall Street : Places And Spaces
Of Political Action Retrieved 12 March 2017 (https://placesjournal.org/article/occupying-wall-
street-places-and-spaces-of-political-action/?gclid=CKyFob67v9ICFcwTaAodgwgAQQ ) ............. 7
Mishel, Lawrence, and Natalie Sabadish. 2012. CEO pay and the top 1%: How
executive compensation and financial-sector pay have fueled income inequalityWashington:
Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved 12 March 2017 ( http://www.epi.org/publication/ib331-
ceopay-top-1-percent). ........................................................................................................................ 3
Tilly, Charles. 2000. Spaces of Contention. Mobilization 5, No. 2 : 135-159. , Retrieved 14 March
2017 (http://mobilizationjournal.org/doi/abs/10.17813/maiq.5.2.j6321h02n200h764?code=hjdm-
site)...................................................................................................................................................... 7

Books

Graeber, David. 2013. The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement. New
York: Spiegel and Grau ...................................................................................................................... 8
Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2012. The Price of Inequality. New York: Norton ................................................. 4
Stiglitz, Joseph. 2010. Free Fall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. New
York: W.W.Norton, .............................................................................................................................. 4

E-Newspapers and Blogs

Berman, Jillian 2013, January 30 , Occupy Wall Street Actually Not At All Representative Of The
99 Percent, Report Finds The Huffington Post , Retrieved 12 March 2017
(http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/occupy-wall-street-report_n_2574788 ) .................................. 9
Christofferson, John. 2011 December 20 . 'We Are The 99 Percent' Chosen As Year's Top Quote.
HuffingtonPost . Retrieved 13 March 2017 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/weare-
the-99-percent-chosen-quote_n_1160171.html> ................................................................................ 8
CNN Wire Staff ,2011 New York court upholds eviction of Occupy
protesters. CNN U.S. Retrieved 12 March 2017 http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-15/us/us_new-
yorkoccupy-eviction_1_protesters-demonstrators-tents?_s=PM:US .................................................. 5
Graeber, David 2012 September 24 Can Debt Spark a Revolution? The Nation , Retrieved 14
March 2017 (https://www.thenation.com/article/can-debt-spark-revolution/ ) ................................. 9
McGhee, Heather, 2011, Why Occupy Wall Street? 10 Reasons why Protestors picked the right
target The Huffington Post , Retrieved 12 March 2017, at (
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-mcghee/why-occupy-wall-street-10_b_1014721.html ).... 1
Reilly, Peter J , 2013, Sept 17 , Occupy Wall Street Anniversary Focuses On Robin Hood Tax ,
The Forbes Retrieved 12 Marh 2017
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/09/17/occupy-wall-street-anniversary-focuses-on-
robin-hood-tax/#69b5d4ad2c6d )........................................................................................................ 4
Walzer, Michael , 2012 Social Movements and Election Campaigns , DISSENT ,Summer 2012
Edition Retrieved 13 March 2017 ( https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/social-movements-
and-election-campaigns ) .................................................................................................................... 9
Zogby, J. 2011, October 22.Whether in Egypt or America, it takes organization to win. Huff
Post World. Retrieved 12 March (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/arab
springelections_b_1026281.html ) ..................................................................................................... 5

Journal Articles

Barber, Benjamin ,2012 . What Democracy Looks Like Contexts: From Sweat shops to Surrogacy
, Sage Publications , 11(2) 14-16 ....................................................................................................... 7
Castells, Manuel and Mukul Kumar , 2014. A Conversation with Manuel Castells Berkeley
Planning Journal , 27(1) , 93-99........................................................................................................ 5
Hammond, John. L .2013 The Significance of Space in Occupy Wall Street Journal For And
About Social Movements Vol 5 (2): 499 524 ................................................................................... 2
Jaydev Arjun , 2011, Reading Signs at the Occupy Movement , Economic and Political Weekly, Vol
46 (49) : 28-31 .................................................................................................................................... 1
Kunstler, Sarah . 2012. The Right To Occupy Occupy Wall Street And The First Amendment ,
Fordham URB LJ. Vol 39 , 989 .......................................................................................................... 4
Skinner, Julia 2011. Social Media and Revolution : The Arab Spring and Occupy Movement as
Seen Through Three Information Studies Paradigms, All Sprouts Content, 483................................ 5